Washington, DC – While acknowledging several positive elements in the final negotiated text of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, Foreign Policy for America (FP4A) is alarmed by the inclusion of several provisions that undermine our national security.
FP4A welcomes the inclusion of the State Department Authorization Act with provisions recommended by FP4A. For the fourth year in a row, negotiators included a State Department Authorization Act as part of the NDAA, demonstrating a sustained bipartisan commitment to strengthening the Department and supporting our diplomatic workforce. This year’s authorization contains an FP4A proposal to offer more flexibility to the State Department’s paid internship program, which will make careers in diplomacy more accessible for students across the country. The legislation also codifies several important diplomatic initiatives and offices that facilitate principled U.S. engagement in the world, including the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the Summit of the Americas, and the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan.
FP4A also applauds the inclusion of the bipartisan United States Foundation for International Conservation Act (ICF Act) and reauthorization of the Defense Operational Resilience International Coordination program (DORIC). The ICF Act establishes a new blended finance mechanism to catalyze public, private and philanthropic investments in global conservation. DORIC supports enhanced security cooperation with partner countries on environmental and operational energy issues impacting our security, including climate change. Closer engagement with and support for developing country efforts around these shared challenges will advance a range of U.S. priorities, from strengthening global food security and climate resilience to tackling corruption and increasing stability and economic opportunities.
However, other provisions of the NDAA are deeply troubling. Most concerning, the bill includes a prohibition on providing certain healthcare to transgender children of servicemembers, treating them as political pawns while needlessly upending the lives of many military families who would be forced to choose between service to this country or healthcare for their child. This prohibition flies in the face of the traditionally bipartisan commitment to keep the NDAA out of the culture war fray. FP4A strongly opposes this provision and calls for it to be stripped from the bill prior to final passage.
“It is shocking that lawmakers would threaten to tank a painstakingly negotiated bipartisan defense bill over a provision that intrudes upon the healthcare choices made by military families and their doctors,” said Brian Volsky, FP4A’s Policy Director. “Protecting our national security should be Congress’ top priority, and we thank the members of Congress and their staff who worked together on the many pieces of this legislation that do just that.”
As in prior years, the FY25 NDAA also includes provisions that undermine nuclear risk reduction efforts, like the prohibition on information sharing on the New START Treaty and the reduction of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. The NDAA also includes provisions that expand and preserve weapon systems, like the nuclear armed sea-launched cruise missile and the B83 gravity bomb, that the Nuclear Posture Review has determined were unnecessary. In totality, these measures push us further away from the stability of arms control and towards a path of a high-risk nuclear arms buildup in the United States.
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